Five players who wanted to leave their clubs this summer, but couldn't
A moment's silence then.
The transfer window has... erm.. "slammed shut" and quite a few players are sat on their haunches wondering what might have been as clubs stood their ground against much bigger clubs in an unprecedented show of employee & little club power in this post-Bosman market.
Here are five players who really, really, wanted to change the colours of the shirts on their backs, but quite simply... couldn't.
#5. Virgil van Dijk
Current Club: Southampton FC
Desired Destination: Liverpool FC, backup: Chelsea FC
The hulking Southampton center-back had been "tapped up" by Liverpool well before the start of the transfer window; and if reports widely circulating among the UK media are to be believed, this is what angered the Saints enough to stand their ground and refuse to sell their star defender to regular customers Liverpool.
This was also in part because Van Dijk agreed, and signed, a bumper six-year contract last season (that obviously came with a big pay rise); something the club quite naturally took as an indication that he wanted to stay. Van Dijk, though, actively courted the Merseysiders in his bid to move to a "bigger" club and also tried his hand at Chelsea, seeing the deteriorating relations between the Reds and the Saints.
The Dutchman has been training with the U-18s since preseason and will now be reintegrated into the senior squad.